10 Best Writing Tips How to Enrich Your Vocabulary Now

Verbal communication remains one of the most widespread ways of how we transmit our ideas to other people, apprehend information, and collaborate with people around the globe. And the thing is, the richer your vocabulary is, the easier it is for you to express yourself orally or in writing, and the higher is the chance of being understood correctly. I decided to share my ten favorite techniques of how you can start learning new words and phrases quickly, easily, and with fun! Let’s start with the most important one.

1.       Read, Read, Read!

Our brain is an amazing thing and it soaks in the information it processes, so we remember it and can use later on. When we read, we train our memory to match the words and concepts we know, and when we can’t do it, it means this is something new to us and we should understand what it is before remembering that. I know, it looks like the whole process when I explained it, but in our head, it takes milliseconds to digest and either move on or alert that this is something unknown. Why am I telling you all this stuff?

Because usually, the unknown triggers surprise and wonder which positively affects our memorizing things. Consequently, the more you read, the more you come across the unknown words you look up in a dictionary,  the more new phrases you can use in writing or speech. And don’t take it from me – ask any writer what is the best way to learn new words and they will tell you the same. BTW, reading doesn’t only include books.  

2.       Play Word Quizzes

From Scrabble to Google Word Coach and other apps and games on the market – these are your tools to use to build a solid vocabulary base. Their convenience is that you do it online and can look up the meaning of the unknown word right away, so you check it in your fast memory. When you see it in writing or recognize it when someone is speaking, you’ll easily memorize it, and when you use it in the context, you can be proud that you’ve just added a word into your active vocabulary. Plus, there is a competition factor if you play it against somebody else, which also accelerates learning.  

3.       Get Into the Acting School

I know this is one of the tips you didn’t expect to see here but let me explain. Step zero to successful acting is to learn one character’s lines and try to feel everything in his/her skin. Most likely, the school will stage the plays of the classic and modern playwrights, and believe me, you’ll find unknown words in any of them. One of the reasons why this is a proven technique of how to enhance the quality and variety of one’s vocabulary is that it is learning in context, and you will have strong associations with the terms you try to memorize.

4.       Learn Other Languages

And the students who deal with languages at the university won’t let me lie on this. When you learn a new language and if it happens to be from the same language family as your native one, you’ll learn new words. How is it possible?

Let’s assume English is your native language and you study French (and you already know there is a lot of borrowings from French in English). Your topic is fashion. In French, it can be either “mode”, or “couture”. In English, you can also use “couture” as a synonym to “fashion” and “mode” instead of “form” or “way”. Plus, you’ll understand the word-formation better (like in host and hostess, which are also from French) and learn that there are a lot of word characteristics the English language doesn’t have. Like gender that is expressed either by endings or articles, or both. Isn’t grammar fun? 

5.       Talk to Different People

People who work in different spheres use different discourses and vocabulary. If you’re friends with a future doctor, lawyer, programmer, and visual artist, you’ll know what a synonym to nose, contract, code, and installation is. Yes, by simply hanging out with them and talking about how their day was at the college.

6.       Get Into Writing for Money

My favorite method on this list also means learning through hands-on practice. If you love writing, you can do it for money and for different clients. You can do a blog for a chef, or an SMM agency, or the local barbershop – it doesn’t matter, because you will have an actual need for a vocabulary that ‘slightly’ differs from your regular one. What will you do? Read more professional articles, find the job-specific words, and learn a lot from it!

7.       Use Social Media (but Not Abuse It!)

The easiest way to keep updated on neologisms and put a word or two daily. A year ago nobody knew what “to Meghan Marke” was, not this is a legitimate verb which means to get out of the situation that causes a lot of difficulties in your life.

8.       Learn Lyrics to Your Favorite Songs

It may ruin your appreciation for the song, but you will know what they are singing about. For some genre, it may be a bit difficult  (like with spoken word or rap) if you aren’t familiar with it or not a native speaker. Still, I had to include it as music made me visit the Cambridge dictionary quite a few times.

9.       Find a Synonym for Every New Word

Hard and difficult are synonyms, not the exact ones though, and knowing the nuances is what makes your vocabulary rich and the speech perfect. Thesaurus is a great tool when you need a list, and I highly recommend checking the meaning in the vocabulary and paying attention to the examples of usage.

10.  Watch TV Series

Especially the field-specific ones. For instance, if you study the law and want to improve your professional vocabulary, search for law series like Suits or Law and Order. If you’re into fantasy or Sci-fi, GoT or Rick and Morty will do good. And you know there are a bunch of those, right? 

These were the tips I wanted to share with you to turn the learning into a fun activity. Almost forgot about the most important: don’t learn random things. Focus on something that you know you will use as it makes the process more goal-oriented, and you will succeed in it faster.

Author’s Bio:  Eve Maygar is a major contributor to PapersOwl. She is an education expert and has done endless research and spent hours gathering information on remote learning. Eve has many published pieces that appear in journals also manages an online education blog. As one of our top boggers, Eve continues to provide readers with the latest information on modern education. Be sure to check out her other work at PapersOwl and learn more about distance learning.

Best Writing Tips

5 Tips On How Can Writing Reduce Your Level of Stress

Humans face stress as a result of different aspects of life such as work, relationships or finances. School going teenagers also face stress as a result of difficult subjects, bullying in school, examinations, peer pressure and much more. That’s why people would rather hire an essay editing service than deal with that. This is why dealing with stress remains one of the most common essay topics.

While stress in life may be unavoidable, one of the best things we should learn is on how to deal with stress. According to recent research, maintaining a daily journal can be great of clearing your mind of stress and fighting anxiety. Writing down a journal of emotion before taking a test has been noted to boost performance in exams. This is on top of the fact that recording your thought can be a great way of solving the problem.

What studies say

When you keep a diary or journal, this will help you to document your experiences and thoughts. According to the studies, journaling is not only effective in relieving stress anxiety, but it can help those who write to increase their lifespan. In one of the studies that were published in the Psychotherapy Research, it was noted that psychotherapy patients who released their emotions by expressive writing enjoyed better reductions in their anxiety, but this also helped to reduce their symptoms of depression.

This means that by recording how you feel, you can reduce the amount of worrying that you experience. In another study that was published in Behavior Modifications, it was noted that expressive writing was able to reduce symptoms of generalized anxiety disorders such as depression and worry. This means that essay writing is not always hard. It has its own benefits.

How writing reduces stress and anxiety

It is not clear why keeping a stress relief journal is beneficial. However, there are some reasons that are believed to be the reasons why writing a thought journal is beneficial. These include:

  • Making it possible for you to sort out and also clarify your emotions and thoughts
  • Allowing you to reflect upon the journeys of your life as you look at your past journal entries
  • Giving you time to reflect on your emotions and feelings to help you understand them better
  • Offering you an outlet to express the difficult emotions like frustration and anger without hurting your loved one
  • Enabling you to get rid of those negative thoughts and helping you move to a happier state of mind.

How to start a stress release diary

Recording your thoughts is different from writing an essay as there are no rules to follow. In case you have an interest in recording your thoughts, getting started is easy. You will only need a pen, paper and a computer. There are people who find that experience of writing using a pen to be quite therapeutic. But there are those who love typing their thoughts. The good thing is that there are certain websites such as LiveJournal that make it possible for people to journal their thoughts privately.

Take time in a quiet and comfortable place where there are no interruptions. Depending on the kind of person you are, choose a particular time each week and day set aside for journaling. Or you may need just to write when you feel like. Ensure that your journal has a date and begin writing. While there are no journaling rules, make sure your notes are as short as possible. Since nobody will be reading the journal, it doesn’t have to be perfect. You may not need an editing service as you do not have to worry about the grammar and punctuations. All you need to do is to keep writing your thoughts as they flow in your mind. According to EssayReviewExpert, one of the essay topics you can choose for your psychology paper is on how writing can help reduce stress.

Effective journaling method

On top of helping you to reduce stress, keeping a journal will help you to keep a record of events. If you don’t know how to do it, try these effective methods:

  • Write down everything, small or big that you would like to achieve in your life
  • Imagine your favourite fictional character is going through a dilemma and write how they would deal with the issue
  • Do an exercise associated with words and use the word stress

Other stress relieving method

It is worth noting that writing a journal is not an end and a fix for many patients suffering from mental issues as well as PTSD. There are some people who will not love writing. If you are finding it difficult to keep a diary, there are other methods you can use to relieve your stress like:

  • Sharing your thoughts with a close friend, relative or teacher
  • Getting an online support group
  • Singing it out
  • Painting or drawing
  • Speaking with mental health professionals, like the ones at BetterHelp

The most important thing is to reduce your stress by finding a creative way of expressing your happy thoughts and emotions.

Conclusion

People respond to stress differently. There are those who prefer to drink alcohol, cut themselves or even eat junk food. Instead of engaging in such destructive behaviours, why don’t you try writing as a stress reliever?

Positive Words Research – How Can Writing Reduce Your Level of Stress?

How Can Writing Reduce Your Level of Stress 2

Top 7 Ways To Lift Your Mood When You Are Feeling Down

Down. Blue. Having a ‘black-dog’ day. We all know those days. When it seems much more preferable to sit in a dark room with Ben & Jerry and lament about all of the life’s woes. But giving into the proverbial black dog is no way to lift you from your funk. All you’ll succeed in doing is feeding it. Literally, if you stick with the Ben & Jerry’s. Far better to pick yourself up and challenge that black-dog and deliberately set about to lift your mood.

Unsure how to start? Here are seven sure-fire ways to lift your mood when you’re feeling down.

Vent

This might seem a little paradoxical at first. If you’re trying to lift your mood, how will it help you to vent your frustrations? It helps by using the same principles of reframing; restate your frustration, review it, examine it and really explore whether it is as big a deal as you have internalized, or whether you’ve made it bigger than it needs to be. Venting should be done in a time-limited and structured way to avoid dwelling on the frustration. Use an egg timer, write a page in a journal. Just keep track and review your outcomes with a critical eye.

Practice positive self-talk

After venting and reframing your frustrations, you might be a little tender and in need of some positive affirmation. There is no better person to affirm you than you. Engage in some positive-self talk. Tell yourself how you will pick yourself up today. Challenge yourself about whether you might be over-generalizing, over-simplifying, over-dramatizing or mind reading. Above all be honest with yourself. If you’re feeling down because you haven’t done something, ask whether it was reasonable in the first place to do it. If your mood is low because you think you will never amount to anything, check in with all the achievements you have made so far.

Focus on the present

This goes hand-in-hand with venting. Focus solely on the present and don’t dwell on the past or worry about the future. Ask yourself whether you’re down because of something right now, or something that happened two weeks ago. Or something that might never come to be but you can’t stop worrying about. What’s done is done, and who’s to know what might be. Take yourself back to the here-and-now and focus on the present.

Practice mindfulness

Mindfulness is a fantastic way of bringing your focus back to the present. There is simply an abundance of ways in which you can practice mindfulness. A counselor or therapist can teach you breathing techniques. Mindfulness and meditation apps are readily available for download on your smartphone or tablet. If meditation is not your thing, try a quiet sit in your favorite spot in the garden, or take up yoga. However you do it, get in touch with yourself.

Exercise

Exercise is not only a great way to focus on the present and create an opportunity for positive self-talk, exercise also helps the body to release ‘feel good’ chemicals like serotonin and endorphins. Exercise may bring further mood lifting results by exposing you to the sunshine, fresh air, other people, a change of scenery and give your lungs, heart and sympathetic nervous system a good workout. Tiredness and the ability to have a long, refreshing sleep may be a long-term mood enhancing benefit of exercise.

Laugh

Scientific studies have long investigated the link between laughter and uplifted mood. Those very same endorphins released during exercise are released when laughing and can flood the body with good vibes. Facial muscles are also activated when laughing and tensed muscles begin to relax. A relaxed body is less prone to a depressed mood than an uptight body. Laughing is a very immediate quick-fix mood enhancer, and it only takes a quick YouTube search to find yourself a big belly laugh. 

Take time out with positive people

The saying goes, ‘Good people know good people’. The same can be said for people who are down in the dumps. Perhaps they’re your work colleagues or your family. Take a good look and you just might find yourself surrounded by a host of misanthropes. If so, seek out those people you know who always bring a smile to your face. The people who light you up just by entering a room. Positive people have an effect on the people they surround; they bring that positivity to the hearts of everyone they touch.

So the next time you’re feeling down, leave the ice-cream in the freezer. Slip in some earbuds, pop on your cap and take a brisk walk around the park. Let the sunshine refresh you and the endorphins do their thing. You’ll feel better for it.

Marcus regularly blogs at psysci, a psychology, science blog that examines the latest research in mental health and explains how findings can impact and improve people’s lives.

Positive Words Research – 7 Ways To Lift Your Mood When You’re Feeling Down

lift your mood when feeling down